How It Should Have Been
by Frave
Summary: Despite what Dumbledore might think Sirius didn't actually spend the year after the Triwizard Tournament drinking himself into an early grave and feeling sorry for himself at Grimmauld Place. He started a chain of events that will expose some unpleasant truths and change countless lives forever.
1. Dora Tonks

Chapter 1: Dora Tonks

Saturday 22nd June 1996

Nymphadora Tonks was a 22, nearly 23, year old witch. She absolutely hated her name, preferring to go by her surname or Dora, as her father called her. She couldn't imagine what her mother had been smoking when she'd named her Nymphadora of all things. Sure Andromeda came from a family that favoured...alternative baby names but she'd also been disowned. Did she really have to follow in those lunatics' footsteps by scarring her child for life with a stupid name? Her father had wanted to name her Michelle but Andromeda had retorted that if Ted went through 31 hours of labour without pain relief, due to being allergic to the main ingredient in pain relief potion, and endured tearing in unmentionable places then he could choose the baby's name. Needless to say Ted had lost that battle.

What few people knew about Dora was that she was only a witch because she chose to be. Dora had been born a metamorphagus, meaning that she had a very rare ability to change literally everything about her body, including her gender. Her parents were of the opinion that those with the metamorphagus ability were basically a third gender because they were technically both male and female but, at the same time, neither. Societal pressures meant she, at least outwardly, had to be one gender or the other, though so her parents had decided on a girl as that was the form she'd been in at the time of her birth. Of course since then Dora had been through so many changes she'd lost touch with her base form, although she still chose to live her life as a woman, even after her parents sat her down when she was eight years old, explained exactly what being a metamorphagus meant and promised to support her even if she wanted to start living her life as a boy. While she'd always been a tomboy, Dora felt like a girl so a girl she remained.

A few years later, however tests run by Andromeda, a qualified healer, revealed that Dora was capable of both bearing and siring children. This was something the Tonks family kept a strict secret. Dora had already been coveted by the DMLE since she was a child, due to the surveillance skills her abilities gave her. She'd be turned into a brood mare for the purpose of the wizarding world's obsession with line continuation if the extent of her ability was revealed. Luckily Dora, as far as her parents could tell, was the only metamorphagus alive in the world so there was nobody who could let any information slip.

Dora hadn't had very many friends at Hogwarts and she'd hardly dated. The boys didn't like her for her; they all wanted her to change into their fantasy date, usually a blonde, big boobed barbie doll. The girls, on the other hand, we're jealous of her abilities and hated her because the boys were less interested in them, knowing what she could do. After Hogwarts Dora had done what everyone expected her to do and joined the DMLE. Her parents hadn't been happy with her decision. They didn't think she should give in to pressure. Dora didn't see it that way. If she could become an aurour and use her abilities to help make the world a better place then so much the better.

Having the legendary Mad-Eye Moody choose her as a protégé made Dora feel even better about her decision. Mad-Eye never paid attention to public opinion so if he'd chosen her Dora had to have something more going for her than just her metamorphagus abilities. She'd quickly become disillusioned, though. It was obvious that the worth of an aurour had nothing to do with their skills. It was how well they played the political game and whether or not they were willing to look the other way to the...unscrupulous activities of some of the so-called upstanding members of their society.

Mad-Eye hated all the burecratic bullshit and definitely wasn't going to let any criminal activity he saw go so he ended up quitting before he could be fired. Dora was too young to follow him, though. She still had her whole career ahead of her. The fact she was a metamorphagus brought her some respect in the snake pit that was the DMLE but Dora still knew that sooner or later the fact that she, unlike the majority of her colleagues, had morals was going to cause problems for her.

At the end of her probationary year, Dora was surprised when Mad-Eye suddenly came knocking on the door of her apartment. Voldemort was back, Mad-Eye told her, and the Ministry of Magic was refusing to believe it. Instead, to combat the dark wanker, Professor Dumbledore was reinstating the Order of the Phoenix, what basically amounted to a vigilante organization he'd started during the first war, and, as one of the few sane members of the DMLE, they wanted Dora to join. She hadn't hesitated. Her parents had kept her as far away from the first war as possible but Dora could clearly remember how scared Ted and Andromeda had been back then. She would do anything to spare her parents from having to relive that pain. She would do anything to spare others from having to experience that pain so she'd immediately signed up to be part of the fight.

When she joined the Order Dora expected to be facing deatheaters on the battlefield. She expected assassinations. What she didn't expect was a glorified dinner club where all they did was sit around listening to the Professor preach about how even the most evil person deserved a second chance and Severus Snape complain about how he was the only one doing anything useful for the Order and how much he hated Harry Potter. When she joined the Order Dora also definitely didn't expect to be reunited with Sirius Black.

Where most people old enough to remember Sirius had preferred to put him out of their minds, Dora had always remembered her cousin. He was her mother's favourite relative, the only one Andromeda had been sorry to leave behind when she fled the House of Black. Sirius had been a frequent visitor to the Tonks home when Dora was young, often babysitting her so Ted and Andromeda could go out. The whole family had been stunned when Sirius was sent to Azkaban, accused of being Voldemort's second in command. Andromeda had felt so betrayed. She'd really thought Sirius was on her side, the white sheep in the Black family. She'd loved him, taken him into her home and let him around her child so when Sirius was arrested, Andromeda felt like a complete fool for not realizing what he was like.

For a good part of her life Dora had hated Sirius Black with a passion for the grief he'd caused her mother so when she walked into Order headquarters for the first time and saw the most wanted man in all of Europe sitting calmly at the kitchen table she'd gone for the throat. Eventually though she'd calmed down enough to hear Sirius' story and that was when, for Dora everything had changed. Her parents had raised her to believe that family always came first and Dora's family once again included Sirius. She now knew that she couldn't spend the rest of her working life at the Ministry. Trying to make the world a better place wasn't worth sticking with the organization that had screwed her cousin over so badly. She would stick it out for however long the war dragged on – even if the Ministry didn't pull it's head out of its ass and start fighting Dora thought she might be able to pick up intelligence to pass on to the Order – but as soon as the dark wanker bit the dust she was out of there.

Dora had never had a cousin before. Well, biologically she had several cousins on her father's side. They didn't know about magic though so Dora hadn't been able to hang out with them when she was young in case she inadvertently broke the Statute of Secrecy before she learned to control her metamorphagus abilities properly. When they were older the cousins all went to the same school so saw each other every day whereas Dora only saw them occasionally when she was home from Hogwarts. As far as Dora was concerned the cousins were naive little twits she would never have anything in common with and the cousins all thought Dora was a weird recluse that they shouldn't have anything to do with.

So Sirius had come as a pleasant surprise to Dora. Yes he was 13 years older than her but, despite her fun loving demeanour, Dora's abilities had forced her to grow up much faster than anybody except perhaps her parents realized. She could definitely relate to Sirius' hard, embittered shell and ultimately was just glad to find she had another magical relative that wasn't criminally insane. The professor tried to tell Dora that she shouldn't tell anybody about Sirius but there was no way Dora was going to let her mother go on thinking that her favourite cousin had betrayed her and, dammit, Sirius needed as many people as possible on his side.

Less than a week after Dora set foot in Order headquarters for the first time she'd looked on as Sirius snuck into her parents' house and had a tearful reunion with Andromeda. From that point on family dinners had been a regular occurrence, usually following the examinations Andromeda insisted Sirius submit to as she helped him recover from Azkaban. Sirius provided a shoulder to lean on when Dora's boyfriend turned out to be the latest in a long line of losers and, in turn, Dora had lent her support when Sirius began making his own discreet enquiries into the mess that was his godson's life.

That mess was how Dora found herself where she was now; standing in a shitty little street in Surrey, in the early hours of the morning, staring up at Number Four Privet Drive. She turned her nose up disdainfully. Dora had nothing against muggles but this place felt sterile and...fake. If she hadn't already had chapter and verse from Sirius about what ghastly people Lily Potter's relatives were, Dora could have figured it out for herself just by the area they lived in. She wanted nothing more than to leave but this was important. The work Sirius had started was essential to the future of the entire freaking world so, with him dead now, Dora had taken it upon himself to carry it on. Using her morphing abilities, she altered her inner ears, to give herself super human hearing. This allowed her to hear what was going on inside Number Four, even from across the street.

By the sound of it, Dudley Dursley was jerking off. Dora quickly focused on another area of the house. She really had no desire to know what that fat fuck got up to in the privacy of his own bedroom.

Vernon and Petunia Dursley were also awake, lying in bed talking. "The fucking freak!" Vernon growled. "I'm going to kill the boy one of these days."

"It's only for another year, dear," Petunia soothed her husband. "The freaks come of age a year earlier than everyone in the normal world so when he turns 17 in the middle of next summer we can legally throw the boy out, regardless of what the old man thinks."

"Believe me, I'm counting down the days," Vernon snapped. "But if he doesn't get rid of those bloody nightmares he'll be lucky to live to 16, let alone 17."

Dora scowled. And these were the people the Order thought appropriate to raise Harry Potter, the hero of the wizarding world? She longed to show a pensive memory of this to the Daily Prophet, to rub in their faces how wrong they'd been, but she resisted. After today the Dursleys would never be an issue again. Besides, she couldn't put Harry, her cousin's beloved godson, through that sort of humiliation.

She frowned, comprehending exactly what Vernon had said. Nightmares? She hastily honed in on Harry's room. Judging by his breathing and heartrate the kid had just woken up from one such nightmare. He was shedding quiet tears. "Sirius," Harry sobbed.

Dora's heart broke for the kid. When Sirius realized how fully his godson had been betrayed he'd also realized that he wasn't going to survive the war. After all he was all that stood between the boy-who-lived and these bastards controlling the kid. Sirius had made plans for after his death but Dora suddenly realized that, still struggling to comprehend that there were people in the world who loved him, he hadn't taken into account the impact his loss would have on those left behind. Dora missed her cousin, badly. She, at least, still had loving parents however so she couldn't imagine how Harry, whose only other remaining adult relatives hated him, must feel.

She glanced skyward. Dora wasn't a religious person but even if there wasn't such a thing as heaven she found herself hoping that Sirius was somewhere peaceful and happy, hopefully reunited with the Potters who he missed so dearly. It was the very least Sirius deserved after all the crap he'd been through. "I promise you, cuz," she whispered. "I'll finish what you started."

She slowly started making her way towards Number Four. It was time to fill the boy-who-lived in on a few unpleasant truths.


	2. Harry Potter

Chapter 2: Harry Potter

In the smallest bedroom of Number Four Privet Drive, a messy raven haired, emerald eyed teenager lay on the rickety old bed, staring gloomily up at the ceiling. His name was Harry James Potter and he was 15, nearly 16, years old. He was also pissed off at the entire world.

Yesterday his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had ended and Harry had returned to Number Four (the home of his muggle relatives, the Dursleys) where he would probably spend a good proportion of the summer. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that, last year, if not for the dementor attack on him and Dudley, the headmaster would have left him at Privet Drive all summer so he wasn't expecting to get away anytime soon, if at all, this year.

Harry had lived with the Dursleys since his parents were murdered by Voldemort when he was 15 months old and all he'd wanted to do since then was leave Privet Drive forever. After all what child wanted to stay in a place where they knew they weren't wanted? The Dursleys hated Harry as much as he hated them. They made no secret of the fact that they would never have taken Harry in if they'd been given the choice. Unfortunately for them, though Professor Dumbledore had just dumped Harry on Vernon and Petunia's doorstep and walked away. Harry sometimes wondered why the Dursleys had never dumped him off with Social Services. Petunia, at least, had to know that witches and wizards grew up all the time in the muggle world so Harry's magic shouldn't have been a problem getting rid of him. Harry wondered whether the headmaster had cast some sort of spell on the Dursleys which forced them to keep him? Would compulsion charms do that? Perhaps the Dursleys were aware of what the headmaster had done to them, which only made them hate Harry more.

'Not that compulsion charms would have made a difference even if the Dursleys were under them,' Harry thought cynically. 'The Dursleys would have hated me with or without magical interference."

Vernon and Petunia claimed that Harry was the cause of everything wrong with their lives. They claimed Harry had destroyed their marriage and ruined their family. Harry wasn't so sure, though. He was of the opinion that the Dursleys would have been miserable regardless of whether or not he'd come into their lives. Lying in his cupboard late at night, Harry had overheard a lot of conversations and arguments between the Dursleys.

Vernon Dursley had come from humble beginnings. His father, Alfred, was the groundsman at the local school and his mother, Karen, was a seamstress. Alfred and Karen worked hard to support their two children, Vernon and Marge. For a while everything was fine, idyllic even, but then Karen was injured in an accident and could no longer work. A few months after that the school burnt down and Alfred lost his job. To support his family Alfred accepted some money from a loan shark and when he couldn't pay the debt back he found himself with a new job selling drugs. Alfred wasn't cut out for that kind of life, though and soon gave himself away. Karen never got over the shame of her husband's arrest and died soon after. Alfred was killed in a prison fight less than a year after his sentence and his children never got over it.

Where Marge became hard and embittered, drinking far too much and caring for nothing but her dogs, Vernon became driven. He was determined to rise up out of the gutter his parents had left him in. To do that, though he had to be the best at everything and his image had to be perfect, nothing about him could be seen to be out of the ordinary. He worked hard at university, gaining a degree in business and would go on to marry Petunia Evans, a secretary in the office where he had his first job.

Unfortunately for him Petunia didn't tell him about her magical sister until after they were married. Unlike a lot of muggleborn's relatives Vernon didn't think magical was interesting or cool. He was appalled. This was awful news! What if his friends and associates found out about the...abnormality he was now associated with? He would never have married Petunia if he'd known about this before the wedding. Now though it was too late, Vernon was stuck. A divorce wouldn't look good on the resume of a man with his aspirations.

Petunia knew that Vernon had never forgiven her for not telling him about magic sooner. She'd just wanted to forget about magic, though. She wanted a nice, normal life. She hadn't always hated magic. When the Evans' first found out about Lily's magic Petunia had thought it was the best thing ever. She wanted to go to Hogwarts as well and being told 'no' made her bitter. Lily got everything she wanted: the beauty, the magic, the brains and the wealthy husband. From that point on Petunia tried to pretend Lily didn't exist. Soon after returning home from her honeymoon, though Petunia's parents had forced the issue, bringing both their daughters and sons-in-law together for their anniversary dinner. The truth had come out and Vernon had resented his wife ever since.

To sour the Dursley marriage further Vernon had been against having children. Magic obviously ran in his wife's family and he didn't want to risk fathering a little freak. Dudley had been an accident and both Dursleys had lived in fear for months that that he would be a wizard. Luckily a visit from the Potters – the only time James and Lily would ever see their nephew – would confirm that Dudley didn't possess a magical core so Vernon and Petunia were finally able to enjoy being parents.

Vernon loved his son and was extremely proud of everything he did. He didn't want to risk this happening again though so, to Petunia's horror, he had a vasectomy. Petunia worshiped Dudley as much as her husband did but she also wanted a little girl she could name Iris after her grandmother and buy pretty dresses for. Now, though, thanks to Vernon, that would never happen. Petunia would never forgive him for it.

About the only thing Vernon and Petunia agreed on was that this was all Lily Potter's fault. With her dead and buried, though and thus beyond their reach, her son was the next best person to take their anger out on. When the Potters got themselves blown up and the Dursleys got landed with their son, Vernon and Petunia vowed that even if they were forced to take the brat in they would never treat him like their own.

Logically Harry could understand his aunt and uncle's point of view. He wouldn't be happy if he was forced to take in Dudley's child either. He didn't believe he could be held responsible for the Dursleys only having one child, though. They obviously didn't have financial issues – Dudley wouldn't get 30+ presents on every birthday and Christmas if they did – so if they'd just gotten over their bigotry and accepted any little witches or wizards they produced would still be their child, they could have had an entire houseful of kids. Harry also couldn't shake the thought that if their positions were reversed and the Potters were alive raising an orphaned Dudley, they wouldn't treat their nephew how the Dursleys treated Harry.

At least there was only another year to go before Harry turned 17 and thus, under the terms of wizarding law, could leave the Dursleys behind forever. After that blessed day Harry had no plans to ever see them again. Some would say that as they'd taken him in Harry owed the Dursleys some gratitude but he disagreed. Harry was aware of just how badly the Dursleys could have stuffed his life up. The abuse he'd suffered from the Dursleys could have made him angry. He could have been an abuser himself and a budding criminal like Dudley.

Luckily though he'd gone in the opposite direction. Harry had known from a young age that the way his so-called family treated him wasn't right. He'd quickly come to understand that the Dursleys weren't good role models and that whatever Uncle Vernon did, he needed to aspire to do the exact opposite. Harry had known all he needed to do was survive until he reached the age of 18. Then he could leave Privet Drive behind forever.

He'd known that he would receive no support from the Dursleys as he transitioned into adulthood, though so he would need to make his own way in the world. Harry thought that being an architect or an engineer would be kind of cool so that meant doing well at school so he could get a scholarship to a good university. The Dursleys didn't like it when he got better marks than Dudley though so Harry had to be smart. He learned to deliberately dumb down his mid-term test scores but do well during the tests that mattered at the end of each year. This drove his teachers crazy, making them think he was lazy and would only do well when they nagged him at the end of each year. It also involved taking a punishment from the Dursleys, who hated to see Dudley outshone. That was okay though, Harry thought. He only needed to survive until Dudley went off to Smeltings and he went to Stonewall High. At a different school to his cousin he would be able to let his true self show. He never had any friends either because Dudley scared all the kids off at school and the Dursleys scared the parents off with stories about what a delinquent Harry was. That was okay too, Harry thought. Sure he was lonely sometimes but once he was an adult and out on his own in the world he could make friends then.

Then, though he'd turned 11 and everything had changed. He'd found out he was a wizard and gone off to Hogwarts to begin a new life. That life wasn't all sunshine and roses though, Harry thought as he reminisced on the past, five years after discovering he was a wizard. In fact there were very few good things about Harry's life in the magical world. He'd nearly died, multiple times. He'd been forced to confront his parents' murderer multiple times. He had to be constantly on his guard from kids of deatheaters, who were out to get him as much as their parents were. He was abused constantly by Professor Snape who, 15 years on, was still holding a grudge against Harry's dad. He had no privacy, the media claiming the public had a right to know about every aspect of his personal life.

Harry wouldn't change any of it though. For every bad thing in the magical world there was a good thing. He had the best friends he could have ever asked for in Ron and Hermione. Even when the trio first met at age 11 it was apparent that Harry's life was never going to be a normal one. Harry had given them the chance to back off but Ron and Hermione had both promised to stand with him always. That was still the case five years later and Ron and Hermione were no longer just his friends. They were his family. Harry had also had the opportunity to meet his godfather Sirius Black. Harry's parents had wanted Sirius to take care of their son in the event of their deaths but unfortunately he'd been sent to Azkaban before he could get custody of Harry. Years later however Sirius had broken out of Azkaban to protect Harry from the real traitor, Peter Pettigrew, and even though Sirius' innocence had never been proven he and Harry had been able to be a family, at least for a little while. Now, though Sirius was dead and Harry was alone again.

Sirius had been killed by his own cousin defending Harry during a battle in the Department of Mysteries. Harry was sick with guilt and grief, knowing that Sirius would never have been at the ministry in the first place if he hadn't been such an idiot. Voldemort had lured Harry to the ministry to collect a prophecy about the two of them and he'd walked straight into the trap.

Harry didn't know what to make of the prophecy. Over a week after Professor Dumbledore explained it to him the words were still going round and round Harry's mind:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

There were so many questions Harry wanted to ask about the prophecy but he understood that Professor Dumbledore, who arrogantly seemed to believe that only he was wise enough to make any important decisions, would never give him a straight answer. Harry realized that if he wanted answers he was going to have to find them himself. He always got annoyed when people treated him like a kid so why not act like the adult he considered himself to be and start taking control over his own life? Where to even begin, though? He contemplated his many unanswered questions.

Did his parents know about the prophecy and, if so, what were their plans for their son?

Why had Professor Dumbledore kept the prophecy a secret for so long? As the only person Voldemort ever feared the professor could have given Harry a fighting chance in the battles that lay ahead. Instead, though he'd kept quiet, supposedly so Harry could enjoy his childhood. That was a rubbish excuse, though because with Mrs Figg living just down the street Dumbledore had to know exactly how the Dursleys treated Harry. So what was the real reason he'd kept quiet for so long and how many innocent people would now needlessly die while Harry trained to a point where he could reasonably hope to match Voldemort in a duel?

What was this amazing power-he-knows-not that Harry supposedly had? Professor Dumbledore claimed it was love but how could Harry use the power of love in a duel? What did the professor think Harry was going to do? Hug Voldemort to death? For that matter if love was such an important weapon against Voldemort why had Harry been sent to live at Privet Drive where he had never known an ounce of love? Professor Dumbledore claimed it was because of the blood wards but Harry was now having serious doubts that they did what the headmaster said or if they even existed at all. After all as amazing as Lily Potter's sacrifice had been she could hardly be the only person in history to die saving a loved one so how had her death created a previously unheard of type of protection?

Did the rest of the Order of the Phoenix know about the prophecy?

How did Voldemort find out about it?

Why did...

Suddenly Harry was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. He hadn't hears any of the Dursleys coming out of their rooms so it couldn't be any of them. Harry inwardly cursed Uncle Vernon for locking him in his room last night. The Dursleys had been pissed about the Order of the Phoenix's threats and had wanted to make sure Harry couldn't cause any more trouble. In doing so they had ensured that Harry was a sitting duck now.

Whoever it was skipped straight past the Dursleys' rooms and began undoing the locks on Harry's door. The fact the intruder was apparently here for him told Harry that it was probably a deatheater rather than a muggle burglar. A split second before Harry's door creaked open, he rolled out of bed and drew his wand. He moved over so he was almost behind the door and, thus wouldn't be immediately noticeable when the intruder walked in, therefore giving Harry a split second advantage.

Then he waited, tensely, as he prepared to face the unwanted guests that had descended on Number Four Privet Drive.


	3. Escape From Privet Drive

Chapter 3: Escape From Privet Drive

"Expelliamus!" Harry disarmed the intruder as soon as they stepped into his bedroom.

"Oi!" Dora yelled. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Tonks?" Harry asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Why don't you put the wand down, Harry? Then we'll talk about it."

Harry almost did as she suggested but then changed his mind at the last minute. "Hang on, that's exactly what you'd say if you were a deatheater trying to trick me. I think you should prove your identity."

Dora obligingly changed her nose into a pig's snout and then back again. "Satisfied?"

"Yeah," Harry said, lowering his wand and tossing hers back. "Oh shit! I thought you were a deatheater so I did magic. I got a warning when a house elf did magic here one time and then there was the fiasco last year. I'll be expelled from Hogwarts for sure this time."

"Chill Harry," Dora said, looking supremely unconcerned. "For a variety of reasons which I'll explain later you are now exempt from the trace. Feel free to use magic to your heart's content."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "Is this something Professor Dumbledore did to prevent a repeat of last summer?"

"In a manner of speaking," Dora smirked as she recalled how, morphed into Professor Dumbledore's form, she'd snuck into Mafalda Hopkirk's office and removed Harry's name from the records. Sooner or later her ploy would be discovered but, by that stage, nobody would be able to find Harry to restore his trace.

Harry sat down on his bed. "So, not that I'm unhappy to see you, Tonks but what are you doing here? I didn't expect to see or here from anybody for at least three or four days yet."

"Pack your stuff, Harry. You're getting out of here."

"Really?" Harry gasped.

"Really," Dora confirmed, smiling at his surprise. "Let's go."

Harry hastily shoved the few things he'd unpacked back into his trunk. Luckily he'd fallen asleep in his clothes last night so he didn't have to worry about getting dressed. He really hoped they were going somewhere with a shower, though. Crippled by guilt and grief hygiene hadn't been high on his list of priorities during the last few days of term and, locked in his room, he hadn't been able to wash last night either but he was beginning to realize how bad he smelled. "If I'm not even going to be here for a full day do you mind me asking what the point of me coming back here at all was? And what was with that little fiasco at Kings Cross yesterday? The Dursleys really didn't take that well, you know."

Dora grimaced. For Harry's sake she hadn't been sold on the idea of threatening the Dursleys but, as usual, the older members of the Order had ignored her. She hadn't been impressed to find Harry locked in his room, either. She'd noticed the cat flap and the numerous locks on his door last summer and had immediately been concerned. She was the only one, though. All the other members of the Advanced Guard had brushed off her concerns, claiming that there was sure to be a 'reasonable' explanation.

Dora didn't buy it, though. As far as she was concerned there was no reasonable explanation for keeping an innocent teenage boy locked up like some sort of animal. She tried appealing to Mad-Eye that, as aurours, it was their duty to serve and protect, and that Harry definitely needed protection from the Dursleys. He'd just laughed her off, though saying that she was still young and had a lot to learn. Even Remus Lupin who was supposed to be one of James and Lily Potter's best friends argued that Harry was an 'adventurous' boy and the Dursleys had probably installed the locks to keep him contained for his own good. Later when she brought it up at the Order meeting Dumbledore had conceded that it wasn't an ideal situation but it was just the way things had to be for now. Only Sirius shared Dora's concerns but the rest of the Order cared about Sirius' opinion even less than they did Dora's. Sirius would later confide in his cousin that he was sure the only reason he'd been allowed to re-join the Order was that the others couldn't legitimately keep him out of meetings that took place in his own home.

"I'm really sorry about that," she told Harry. "That wasn't my idea, you know."

Luckily Harry didn't seem to take offense, at least not with her. He moved on to another concern that crossed his mind. "What about the blood wards? The headmaster says that the whole reason I have to stay here each year is to recharge them. As much as I want to leave I'd hate everything I've been through in this hellhole to end up being for nothing."

Dora looked at Harry sadly. "I'm sorry, Harry but there are no blood wards here. In fact there are no wards here at all, at least no protective ones."

"What? That's impossible."

"I'm sorry, Harry but part of my training as an aurour was learning to detect all sorts of wards. I guarantee there are none here."

Harry didn't know what to think. "B-But the headmaster said..."

Dora rolled her eyes. "The headmaster says a lot of things, Harry. Most of which are complete crap. I'm sure you've noticed that."

"True."

"So, what do you say? Shall we get out of here?"

"Dumbledore doesn't know anything about this, does he?" Harry realized, strapping his trunk shut.

Dora shook her head. "No he doesn't. And we're hoping he won't find out until after you turn 17."

"What do you mean?"

"This isn't the time or place for this conversation, Harry," Dora told him. "I know that we don't really know each other but I need you to trust me. And if you can't do that then you need to believe that Sirius only ever wanted what's best for you."

"S-Sirius?" Harry asked, startled. "What's he got to do with this?"

"Everything we're about to do was Sirius' idea," Dora broke it to him gently. "A lot of people have been manipulating you, Harry and Sirius found out about it. You were safe enough while you were at Hogwarts but he made plans to take you away from it all this summer. Obviously if he was still here he'd be the one explaining all this to you now but..."

"Clearly he can't because he's dead and it's all my fault!" Harry cut in.

"Hey, enough of that!" Dora scolded him. "Sirius loved you so much, kid. The only people he'd blame for what happened are Voldemort and that bitch Bellatrix. I'm sorry, Harry but Sirius had a lot of enemies and his chances of surviving the war weren't great. I truly believe that if he was going to go out this was the way Sirius would have wanted to go: a quick, painless death while defending someone he loved as opposed to a slow, torturous death at the hands of one of his enemies."

"Maybe," Harry said sullenly, clearly not convinced but willing to drop the subject for now.

Dora waved her wand over Hedwig, scowling as she read the results of her detection charm. "Of course she's subject to tracking charms."

"You mean somebody is monitoring my mail?" Harry asked in horror.

"Three guesses who," Dora snarled, disabling the charm.

"Dumbledore," Harry said bitterly.

"Probably," Dora told him. "Let Hedwig out to fly, yeah? She'll probably appreciate making her own way to where we're going more than taking a portkey with us."

Harry petted his owl. "Would you like that?"

Hedwig chirped and then swooped off, out the open window. Dora nodded in satisfaction, also shrinking Harry's trunk. "Well that's that taken care of. Come on, Harry. Let's get out of here. There's just a few things I need to take care of before we go."

Harry followed her in shock, watching as Dora entered first Dudley's room, then the Dursleys', stunning them and placing what Harry guessed were portkeys on their chests, causing them to vanish. "What are you doing?"

"Sirius had a professional analysis of the wards around this place done," Dora explained. "And the results weren't good, Harry. There's a strong possibility that the Dursleys are so...mean because they're under some sort of behavioural modification charms. Bill Weasley who, as you know, is a cursebreaker, is on our side. He's going to examine them and find out for sure. Even if their personalities are natural, though they're going to be offered the opportunity to be relocated out of the country, probably with all their memories of magic removed. After all, as your relatives, they're going to be major targets for Voldemort. I know they don't deserve our protection but, with them safely out of the way, it'll be one less thing for us to worry about."

Harry nodded, having already half suspected that the Dursleys were under some sort of compulsion charm. "Good," he said. "As much as I hate them I don't want them dead. Nobody deserves the kind of death Voldemort would give them simply because they're related to me."

Dora smiled. "Sirius suspected you'd say something like that."

Harry hadn't been bothered or even overly surprised by Dora's treatment of the Dursleys but he was horrified by what she did next. She pulled out a chunk of her hair, which she scattered on the floor, at the bottom of the stairs and then used her wand to slash her arm open. "Tonks! What the hell are you doing?" he yelled, rushing forward to try and stop her doing herself any more damage.

Dora waved her arm around, causing droplets of blood to land on the walls and floor. She then cast a healing charm on her arm and cast a few blasting charms around the place, causing some moderate damage. "Sorry if I scared you, Harry but needs must," she said. "With both you and the Dursleys gone what few wards this place does have will soon fall and Dumbledore will probably come looking to see what happened. I'm supposed to be on guard duty for the Order so when he comes I'm hoping he'll think that the house was attacked, I got injured trying to defend you and we all got dragged off."

"You're hoping people will think we're dead," Harry realized.

"For a while," Dora agreed. "The ploy won't last long. After all, sooner or later Snape will tell the Order, in his capacity as a spy, that Voldemort doesn't have us and the truth will come out. Although there is a slim possibility that the Order will believe Voldemort's lying to Snape. Voldemort doesn't completely trust the greasy git, you see."

"And my friends?" Harry asked. "Your family? What about them?"

"Marge Dursley has already been retrieved and will be given the same option as her brother and sister-in-law," Dora explained. "It's unlikely she would be targeted but we don't want any loose ends. My parents are in on the plan. They're going to put on a show of being grief stricken parents then join us in hiding. After all it would be completely plausible for them to go on the run. Sooner or later they will be targeted by Bellatrix. As for your friends, some of the Weasleys will be joining us in the coming days. Augusta Longbottom refused to leave her home but she's sending Neville into hiding with us. Hermione's parents have already accepted an offer of safe passage out of the country. Hermione will be given the chance to go with them but will join us if she refuses to leave. After Miss Lovegood joined you at the Department of Mysteries an offer of protection was also extended to her family, although we don't know exactly what they're doing yet."

"Thank god," Harry breathed, knowing that as much as he wanted to be safe personally he cared so much more about the wellbeing of his friends.

"Have a little faith, Harry. It's all under control," Dora grinned at him.

Despite himself, Harry couldn't help grinning back. "I'm beginning to see that."

"So are you ready to leave this place forever?"

"I've been ready for that since I was about three years old. Where are we going anyway?"

"You'll see." Dora grabbed hold of Harry with one hand and took out their portkey with the other. "Activate."

Harry felt a sickening tug behind his navel as he left Number Four Privet Drive for what would be the last time. A few seconds later he and Dora were clear across the country and arrived at their destination. Dora, the supposedly clumsy one landed on her feet, while Harry, predictably, was slammed hard into the ground. He silently bemoaned the fact that, other than flying, all forms of magical transport ended in disaster whenever he tried to use them. "God I hate portkeys."

"Cheer up, Harry. We're here."

"And where, exactly, is here?"

Dora smiled broadly. "Welcome home, Harry," she said. "Welcome to Potter Manor."


End file.
